I was omw to a jobsite yesterday morning and our Mazda started sounding like it had a miss and I lost alot of power. The service engine light started flashing and I dreaded what I was going to find. So I left the car up at the jobsite and the Doctor I do the majority of my work for loaned me their Volvo to get back and forth for acouple of days while I diagnosed and fixed the Mazda. So I took the code reader up today and hooked it up. It came back with 7 codes probably caused by whatever happened. One of those codes was missfire cylinder 4. I pulled the plugs and cylinders 1,2 and 3 hod "normal" looking plugs. Cylinder 4 had what looked like a oily film over a normal looking plug. I took my long extension and poked it down the sprkplug hole until it toched the top of the piston. I pulled it back out and there was a little oil on the end of the extension. /sigh, Looks like it's replace or rebuild time. Any suggestions on websites I could check for used or rebuilt Mazda engines? I'm going to go do a compression test tomorrow, but I'm already pretty sure what I'm going to find. I'd just like to price replacements verses rebuild to decide what I'm going to do. Figures... Our water heater started leaking 3 weeks ago so I had to replace it and now this.
I get all my parts from there.. and yes ALL of the parts. I have seen shortblocks on there. Mazda builds **** , you may "zoom zoom" somewhere for a short period of time but not for very long.. Had similar issue happen to me recently (amongst A LOT of others) in my 04 6s 3.0L V6. Massive hesitation, CEL blinking at me. Thankfully it was right around the corner from the house. Plugged in Code Reader and got code ignition coil code for cylinder one. Took intake and everything off (of course Cyl 1 is the toughest to get to) replaced ignition coil, problem is back as of yesterday ran well for 2 weeks. Car seems as though it's just missing. I haven't ran the code yet, but I am assuming it's the same issue, maybe different cylinder. Now I've also got a fan relay or something that's bad, Fan never shuts off while car is running, spins like a bat out of hell the minute you start the car up, whether AC is on or not. Now it seems that I probably have a massive electrical issue somewhere. This car has been the biggest headache in the 8 years I've owned it. Of course emissions is due May 1st so now all these problems start up. Only reason I continue to fix it, is because it's paid for. Needless to say I'll never purchase another Mazda. Best of luck to you, KHW.
[This message has been edited by Arizona85GT (edited 04-13-2014).]
With that I'd have to swap the crank and pistons and everything else over, and I wouldn't want to use old rings and pistons in a new block. Looks like a shortblock from them is $2187. http://www.jimellismazdapar...2343/FS1E02200A.html
But I know I've read on here places people look for used engines for swaps. I don't know if any of them would have foreign engines though. I searched our Yellow Pages out here but didn't find what I was looking for. I know when I lived in Cali there was a place called Japanese Engine Warehouse (or something like that) where I was able to get a engine for my Nissan for a decent price. Sure it was used but it lasted for quite awhile (until I sold the truck several years later).
I'm sorry to hear about the trouble your having with your Mazda. Ours has actually been really good over the past several years since we got it. Aside from normal maint stuff like battery, tires and brakes we haven't had to change anything. I really like the car overall, of course ours is paid off also so that helps. But I wouldn't be able to justify spending 3k on a engine by the time I'm done swapping it for a new longblock. I'll keep looking and see what I can find. I know i saw on Ebay some used with about 110k for around $600 but they were out of Canada. I was hoping to find something that wouldn't have to go through customs... And I really don't know if I want to spend the time to rebuild the engine I have now if the rings are shot on that cylinder. I could pull the engine and put a used one in over 2 weekends, where as a rebuild would take much longer for me to do.
Sorry can't help, I don't do imports, hell I hate it when this guy I know brings his classic Mercedes over even for something simple. Seeing its a 12 year old car I have to ask, is it really worth it?
Steve
------------------ Technology is great when it works, and one big pain in the ass when it doesn't
Before you go all crazy doing an engine replacement/rebuild, check the valve cover gasket. I have seen them leak oil right into the spark plug wells and this can cause misfires. Do a compression test to see if the cylinders are holding pressure. It you have good compression you may not need to do a rebuild. You may only need to replace a leaky valve cover gasket and change the spark plugs.
Before you go all crazy doing an engine replacement/rebuild, check the valve cover gasket. I have seen them leak oil right into the spark plug wells and this can cause misfires. Do a compression test to see if the cylinders are holding pressure. It you have good compression you may not need to do a rebuild. You may only need to replace a leaky valve cover gasket and change the spark plugs.
or a leaky valve seal, though I have never seen one leak that bad that the oil didn't get burned off as soon as you start it.
I don't know squat about MAZDA, but I do know that because of some quirky law in Japan, people replace perfectly good engines all the time. Try here: http://www.jdmenginedepot.com/jdm_engines/Mazda/
I don't know squat about MAZDA, but I do know that because of some quirky law in Japan, people replace perfectly good engines all the time. Try here: http://www.jdmenginedepot.com/jdm_engines/Mazda/
You beat me to it. That was exactly what I was going to suggest.
I did a compression test today, but I'm unsure if it is helpful. With the check engine light flashing I'm afraid to warm the engine up and have it grenade on me. The compression with the engine cold was 1-150, 2-144, 3-147 and 4-150. So cylinder 4 that the misfire is on has compression comparable to the other cylinders. So, maybe the oil residue on the piston came about from the distance I did drive it to get it where I could work on it and not actually loss of compresion. What I'm looking at now is checking for spark tomorrow after I get done working. If it has spark I will check the injector on that cylinder. I checked fuel pressure and that was okay but that doesn't mean the injector is spraying. Maybe I will get lucky and it will just be a faulty coil or injector.
[This message has been edited by Khw (edited 04-14-2014).]
Oh yeah! I forgot to post what I found. Well, after finding the compression looking good I swapped the coil for cylinder 1 and 4 with the coild for cylinder 2 and 3. I cleared the codes and started it back up and idled it until it threw a code again. I checked the code and my missfire had moved from cylinder 4 to cylinder 2. The way the coils work is one sits on top of cylinder 4 with a sparkplug wire running to cylinder 1 and the other sits on top of cylinder 2 with a plug wire going to 3. So since the missfire followed the moving of the coil I replaced that coil and all is good now.
